2 Alpes Snow Report: 21st March 2012

If you’ve picked 2Alpes for your late season ski jolly, you’ll be delighted to know that today’s conditions confirm you’ve made the right choice.

Thanks to high runs and north facing slopes, the weekend’s fresh snow has held up much better over most of the resort here than it has in neighbouring Alpe d’Huez, where it was already getting slushy even in Monday’s overcast conditions.

Getting out late in the afternoon (as I habitually do, what with work getting in the way of important activities like snowboarding) meant the pistes were covered in bumps and most of the nearby off piste was heavily tracked, but despite that sort of nitpicking it has to be said that snow quality everywhere was top notch, especially when you consider we’ve only got another five weeks left of the season after this one.

This morning’s weather bulletin posted 60kph winds on the glacier, which didn’t bode well, but by midday it had dropped to a mere breeze, and as a result the pistes showed very little evidence of scouring and the surface was still soft and uncrusted.

The new snow means conditions are much faster than they have been in the recent slush, which is handy for a boarder trying to get across the flat between the exit from the funiculaire to the Puy Salie. Unfortunately though, a big bump and a ridge of snow left by some quirk of the piste machines dumped me on my back right in the middle of the flat bit, and left me wth an ignominious hike before I could get to anything vaguely downhill-looking.

Once back on the board I had a cruise round the glacier runs before heading down via the red section of Jandri4 towards Toura. The snow on all these runs was in great fresh condition despite having been kicked up into bumps, and there was no sign either of thaw or of ice appearing from under the new stuff.

Back down at Toura the pistes were again in excellent condition, and there were even still a few lines to be had in the powder under the chairs and to each side of the marked pistes. Mind you, I’m stretching a point in calling it powder – this is three days after snowfall, and investigation revealed that while neither crusted nor too heavy it’s beginning to get a bit soapy. Not bad, but it won’t last long. It won’t surprise me if there’s still proper powder to be found in sheltered spots for the rest of the week though.

Conditions were similar further down at the Bellecombe sector which, although lower, is protected from direct sun and holds its snow well. The track back to the six-man Bellecombe chair was getting slushy as usual, but this is hardly anything to grumble about given conditions on the rest of the hill.

The run back to Cretes had caught a bt of sun but not enough to turn to slush, so it was hard and compacted, which wasn’t a lot of fun, but never mind. Cretes itself was softening up, and both the routes back to resort and the beginner runs at Bas des Pistes were showing end of day spring conditions, but personally I’m of the opinion that the Valentin in much more fun when it’s like that than it is earlier in the season, when it tends to be a sheet of ice, having been scraped bare by nervous skiers sliding down it sideways.

I didn’t get the chance to do La Fee today, but I’d predict that the conditions down there could be some of the best in resort – project for tomorrow afternoon, I feel.

The weather forecast for the rest of the week is unsettled, with possible bits of snow, cloud lolling about and random sunny periods. There’s no significant drop in temperature predicted, but the freeze level is supposed to remain steady at around midstation, meaning that with any luck the upper slopes should stay in great shape to the end of the month and beyond.